University of Wales

University of Wales   (University)
Motto	Goreu Awen Gwirionedd (The Best Inspiration is Truth)
Formation	1893
Headquarters	Wales
Type	•  Confederal •  non-membership university
Dissolved in the 2010s after a number of academic scandals.

The University of Wales (Welsh: Prifysgol Cymru) is a confederal university based in Cardiff, Wales. Founded by Royal Charter in 1893 as a federal university with three constituent colleges – Aberystwyth, Bangor and Cardiff – the university was the first university established in Wales, one of the four countries in the United Kingdom. The university was, prior to the break up of the federation, the second largest university in the UK.

A federal university similar to the University of London, the University of Wales was in charge of examining students, while its colleges were in charge of teaching. Historically, the University of Wales was the only university in Wales until the establishment of the University of Glamorgan in 1992.

Scandal and merger

In 2010 the university broke its links with a Malaysian college after it was discovered its director had bogus qualifications, while a Thai institution linked to the university was found to be operating illegally. In June 2011, a report from the Quality Assurance Agency found that the university had not run the necessary checks on institutes delivering courses it validated, and instructed it to review all of its validation arrangements. In October, the University announced that it would cease validating courses, just before news broke that one of its affiliated colleges in London was involved in a visa fraud. This led to calls from the vice chancellors of the universities of Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, Glamorgan and Swansea for the University of Wales to be wound up.

It was announced later in October that the University of Wales would be "effectively abolished", and merged into the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD), which itself merged with Swansea Metropolitan University on 1 August 2013. In August 2017 a deed of union was approved by the University of Wales and UWTSD, which integrated the two universities into a single functional body prior to a full legal constitutional merger; as of February 2020 this full merger has not been finalised. As part of the work towards merger, custody of the university's Gregynog Hall and its estate was transferred to the newly created Gregynog Trust in July 2019.

 

Alumni on Wikispooks

Person	Born	Died	Nationality	Summary	Description
Alun Cairns	30 July 1970			Politician
David Carter				Diplomat Spook	Spooky British diplomat
Mark Ellison			UK	Lawyer	Successfully led and secured the first convictions of any of Stephen Lawrence's murderers
Jill Evans	8 May 1959		Wales	Politician	A member of the European Parliament
John Gearson	March 1963			Academic	Terrorism expert at King's College London,
Bruce George	1 June 1942	24 February 2020	UK	Politician	Member of the Privy Council since 2001, MICC connected MP
John Silkin	18 March 1923	26 April 1987
Debbie Wilcox
Betty Williams	31 July 1944		Wales	Politician

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